Attorneys plan to file lawsuit in cold case reviewed by ex-CBI forensic scientist
FOX31 is breaking down what could be the first civil suit to come out of this situation and getting a reaction from someone who testified in the trial about the DNA.
Denver Crime Lab to review hundreds of sexual assault kits handled by former CBI analyst 'Missy' Woods
A review of Wood's work over her 30-year career resulted in CBI uncovering 1,022 impacted cases as of April.
'Our case was a 40-year-old cold case, double homicide in which, really, the only evidence against our client was DNA and DNA specifically processed and analyzed by 'Missy' Woods,' Civil rights attorney Kevin Mehr said.
Mehr is preparing to file a lawsuit suit with the daughter of Alan Phillips, a man convicted in 2022 for two Park County murders in 1982.
'There were two women killed, one was found roughly the day after she went missing, and then the other woman was found in a different location, pretty far away, about six months later,' Mehr said. 'The husband of the first woman went out looking for her the next day, found a Kleenex on the side of the road, not near the body, not on the body, just a Kleenex on the side of the road. He picked that up and he picked up a glove of the woman that was not near the body and that was put together.
'Obviously, DNA can transfer from one thing to the other, and that's the basis of the DNA that what that existed for 30 plus years until Missy Woods got involved,' Mehr continued. 'Our position is this is absolutely a wrongful conviction. Our client did not get a fair trial because the entirety of the prosecution was based on false evidence created by Missy Woods.'
'Mr. Phillips was not wrongfully convicted,' Mitch Morrissey said. 'A jury found him guilty of both murders. He perfected an appeal and then he committed suicide. Once he perfected that appeal, it was never resolved. The convictions were never final. And under Colorado law, the Court of Appeals ordered the district court to take back the case and dismiss it. So it was dismissed.'
Mitch Morrissey's company, United Data Connect, uses genetic genealogy to connect crime scene DNA to relatives of potential suspects. He told FOX31 about when he testified in Phillip's trial.
'We got the DNA from Charlie McCormack and at CBI, we took the DNA and we sequenced it, which CBI had nothing to do with,' Morrissey said. 'Mr. Phillips's whole genome was sequenced, and then we did genealogy on it and we tracked it to Mr. Phillips. So his whole genome profile and the genealogy work that we did indicated it was him.'
Phillips' daughter is seeking justice. Mehr tells FOX31 they he reached out to CBI about their plan to file a lawsuit relating to Missy Woods' work on the case. CBI told FOX31 they cannot comment on pending litigation.
'Ultimately what we're hoping to do here is be the first one out there and say, hey, look, if your case was affected by her, you need to be looking into this,' Mehr said. 'You need to make sure that your rights weren't violated.'
'She's low-hanging fruit as far as I can see,' Morrissey said. 'I think everybody that has ever testified or ever had anything to do with, they're going to go either go after her or try to get out of jail if they get convicted.'
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